Dudley saw the small iron men appear when Wembley had climbed the broken cabinet. The cleric guess the shiny statue he carried in his pack may have been what had been displayed there. So in an effort to appeas the creations he pulled the statue out and threw it at their feet. "Here you can have it back, we were returning it."

Dudley then jumped to hide behind the fighters.

As it was in life for things to go wrong with curious cats or children, so to it was with Cidal's. Spotting a possible door portal in the ceiling Wembley was on his way in a matter of quick moments. And as fate would have it as soon as Cidal thief moved to the cabinet below to climb up towards the ceiling portal, an alarm sounded loudly and the portals to the room all turn red.

Without warning before them appeared, four metal men, looking like mobile iron statues with fists raised. Yet only 3 feet tall! Looking at his bow and arrows in hand knowing how useless they were for fighting small iron men, he at once went for his long and short swords and prepared to fight. Though he wished for something blunt, like a nice war hammer, he had nothing of the sort. Not sure how well his swords would work, he had nothing else and so readied himself to fight. Small or not there was no way to determine how dangerous they were in close combat until they were engaged in such. Standing his ground he readied himself for a fight...................

The four metal creatures move forward with a steady gait and a pounding of their feet on the floor. Mal and Crow move to defend the party and strike at the creatures. They hit solid blows against the metal men but they do not seem to cause damage to anything but their swords.

Ivan rapidly leaps up and joins Wembley on top of the cabinet.

Gamard casts a spell on his staff in hopes to make it more effective against the creatures.

The metal man strike back with pounding blows. Crow manages to dodge the fists that are attacking him but Mal takes a hard blow to the stomach and then to the chin, causing him to stumble slightly and move away from the attack. Gamard takes a glancing blow but Dudley, in a desperate attempt to hide behind the fighter manages to avoid the blows of the other iron man.

Alondas cast a magic missile at one of them and it hits but once again, there seems to be no visible damage.

OOC: Mal is seriously wounded, Gamard is lightly wounded.

Gamard took a glancing blow from one of the metal guards, but he was not ready to let himself be so easily diverted. He tried hitting the guard who had attacked him and then backed away from it.

"Dudley!" he called out. "Place the statue back in its place!"

For all he knew it would trigger something in the iron men, possibly a retreat.

"Dudley!" Gamard called out. "Place the statue back in its place!"
"What???... Go over there by them?....If I'm lucky maybe one will kick it over here!" The cleric didn't want to get close to the swinging iron arms.

"Wait they are made of iron." With that Cid called upon his magic and cast "Create Water", splashing it over the four iron things and the floor. "Maybe it will make them slip and fall down...or maybe they will rust!"

With Ivan besides him, Wembley surveyed the scene below. "Sorry, friends," he said apologetically from his perch. "The portal to the second floor was right above me and I knew that's where we wanted to go and I was just going to say, 'Hey, it's right here, guys!' I din't know these rust buckets were going to crash in like this."

Mal took a hard blow to the chin. Wembley winced. "Sorry, Mal... but, hey!" A thought suddenly captured the halfing. "Seeing as the iron guards are already here, maybe now is your chance to grab that beautiful sword."

OOC: From his vantage point, Wembley will try to see if there are any buttons or levers or something that looks like it might turn the golems off or stop them. If he notices something, he'll communicate the information to the group and attempt to hit it with his staff-sling and bullets.

Alondas saw his magic missile bounce off with no apparent damage. Then he saw the physical attacks fail as well. That was not a good sign. Unable to think of anything else to do, he cast protection from evil on himself to at least try to be less of a target while he looked for something that might help.

As Crow watched both his and Mal's attacks do no damage and Mal seriously hurt in return. The Sylvain Ranger found himself at a loss of what to do next against these tiny metal guardians. Wait guardians protecting,
"Alondas! Grab Mal and get him to the doorway in the roof, Gamard help him. Everyone get through it quickly I'll distract them."

Moving quickly Crow began pushing over the other display cases as he headed for the one with the sword within. Hopefully the Iron Men would see him as the bigger threat and focus on him giving the rest of the party time to get out of the room. Then if his luck held out the displayed sword would be effective vs. these guardians.

(OOC: Gonna try to draw them away from the rest of the party, giving the others time to help Gamard and the shorter characters get up and out. I figure if I gain the sword and it does not do anything then I can at least have an easier time getting out due to my height.)

‘I knew I should have brought a club.' Mal jests at Crow. It is then Mal is greeted by two hard blows and causes him to stubble back.

"Maybe it will make them slip and fall down...or maybe they will rust!"
Spitting up blood Mal squeaks out, ‘Do we have time for them to rust?' he chuckles a bit but the pain stopped that rather quickly.

"Seeing as the iron guards are already here, maybe now is your chance to grab that beautiful sword."
‘No thank you, not just now.' Mal attempted to ready himself. ‘Use the pummel of your swords.'

OOC: found myself

Gamard swung with his newly enchanted staff and was reward with a definite "thang" and a dent in the armour. This time he felt like he had done something to the metal man.

Alondas cast another spell on himself in hopes to protect himself. He heard Crow's cry to help Mal get out of the room, but did not have the time to finish his spell and besides, Mal would have nothing of being lead away.

Crow ran to the cabinet and grabs the black sword in hopes to draw attention to him. It works as every one of the iron men turn and move toward him.

Mal attacks the ironmen as their attention is drawn away. He hits it with the pommel of his sword once and then a second time by to no avail.

Crow attacks with the new sword in order to defend himself. The round room means that he has no corners to limit the attacks of the creature. The sword strikes against the iron guards as if thet were of flesh and Crow's confidence is renewed as the sword pierces the metal.

Just as Crow is about to be attacked , the deluge of water created by Dudley pours down upon him and the Iron Men. Although it does not seem to hurt them, they do move out of the waters path and abort their physical attacks for a moment. Instead, a green gas begins to seep out of their bodies and fill the air. The gas burns your skin and lungs and there is nowhere to avoid it.

Wembley looks for levers of buttons to use in an effort to save his friends but there are none. The only thing up here is Ivan the cat and the portal in the ceiling.

OOC: Mal is seriously wounded, Gamard is lightly wounded
, everyone is lightly wounded by the gas.

Dudley knew their luck would change; he just needed to do something to help it. Crow had found that the sword in the case was a good weapon against this iron but now they were spreading a green gas that burned. The only way out seemed to through the ceiling or another change in luck. The cleric has no spell that would get rid of the gas but maybe if,..

Dudley quickly grabbed up the metal statue he had tossed at the iron men and cast through the glass of the case holding the staff. Dudley was hoping the staff has magical powers that will allow him to reach beyond his usual limits of talent. The small priest murmurs a prayer to his goddess as he grabs the staff. Dudley can only think of asking to bring wind creature, a dust devil, to gather up the poison gas and trap it while they continue to battle the iron creations.

Mal reached in his pouch in the little special place where he keeps such things as he needs when he needs them, "Nuts!" He holds his fingers up only to see dust and a bit of lent. "In my state I can do no more than turn a tidal pool red with my own blood." Mal begins to move back, grabbing at what feels like a bit of frostbite but burns like a branding iron, "I will not die here! I will feel the wind in my hair, hear the roar of the mighty sea, and feel the warmth of a woman." He looks at the blood on his hands, "Nuts!"

Wembley felt the gas begin to burn his lungs, saw the swashbuckling siggie take a solid slug from the steel cidal-esque creatures. His eyes tried to find something that might help his companions. Seeing his kin move for the staff, Wembley's eyes fell upon the only other interesting thing in the room... the orb.

Leaping from his cabinet perch, the thief brought his staff-cling to bear down on the glass surrounding the orb, before grabbing it.

Crow moved fast and within seconds his goal was reached and he had the black sword in hand. As he had hoped the 4 Iron Midgit Men turned towards him, moving to the attack quicker then Crow had wanted. As Crow moved to defend himself he noticed none of the other party members had done as asked and escaped through the roof portal.

With no time to think of the why or to show his frustration with them he moved to the attack and with a flurry of blows Crow got his a second surprise,,, The black sword unlike his other long sword actually hurt these deadly creatures. Preparing to defend himself, however, a spray of water hit the Iron midgets releasing a thick green vapor that at once made breathing very hard. Trying as best he could to not breath to heavy, Crow moved to attack them once more.

Alondas came up with no real options. So he did the best he could, try to distract the iron creatures so the ones who could hurt it had easier shots. Taking aim at the creature attacking Crow he tried to slip his staff between its legs; hoping to trip it.